Special Feature Environmental and Safety Performance of Cranes

We are proud to introduce the G-2 Series equipped with an engine that satisfies the new 2014 exhaust gas regulations and successor to the concept of the Mastertech-G Series that was the first in the industry to be equipped with a variety of energy-saving functions. G-Mode, KOBELCO’s developed low energy system, was further advanced in our continuous pursuit of environmental performance.

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1G-Engine
Improvement in Fuel Consumption

This function controls the engine speed to operate the engine within the range of good fuel consumption efflciency. Although the winch speed normally drops when engine speed is reduced, the G-Engine allows you to work while maintaining the main and auxiliary winches at maximum speed through pump control. This improves fuel consumption by approximately 10% when performing normal crane work.

2New Clean Diesel System
Massive Reduction in NOx Emission

The engine is equipped with a new system that reduces harmful substances including those in diesel engine exhaust gas. The combination of the urea SCR system that sprays urea into exhaust gas to separate the harmful NOx into harmless nitrogen and water, and DPF, which provides optimal PM removal, results in extremely clean exhausted gas. This system satisfles the 2014 exhaust gas regulations.

3IS(Idle Stop)
Prevents Wasteful Consumption of Energy

We were the first in the industry to adopt an "Auto Idle Stop (AIS)" function, which induces the engine to stop when the machine is stopped, in 2011. This function automatically stops the engine when the machine is waiting for the next trailer to come and similar circumstances. It provides energy-saving efflciency in various work scenarios such as construction and cargo handling in harbors. The G-2 Series is also equipped with "Manual Idle Stop (MIS)". It allows the operator to stop idling when so desired. There 14 conditions to stop the engine when AIS is used and nine conditions for MIS in consideration of safety.

4G-Winch
Provides Energy Savings and Speed

When operating with no load or a light load, you can use high-speed mode to hoist the winch at the maximum line speed without increasing the engine speed. The G-2 Series improves operating functionality even when swinging or raising/lowering. Operation is limited to when four conditions are satisfled as a safety function.

The full-model change G-2 series was introduced as a successor model to the Mastertech-G Series, an innovative crawler crane created by KOBELCO. G-2 Series is the first model to comply with the 2014 exhaust gas regulations in our crane product range and improved the G-Mode energy-saving function to meet user needs. It is equipped with an abundant amount of advanced top world-class environmental technology.
In order to satisfy the new exhaust gas regulations, which required a severe 20% reduction of NOx, this new model was equipped with a newly developed engine using the urea SCR system that uses urea to separate NOx into nitrogen and water. This is the first time the new engine, originally developed for buses and trucks, is used in construction equipment. Junpei Yamada, responsible for electrical control systems, commented, "In addition to the unique movement of the crane, the increased amount of sensors and other devices made it quite complicated, so developing an engine that matched the machine was the number one issue." More time than usual was spent coordinating with engine manufacturers to handle the great amount of detailed communication and intricate revisions.

The "G-Mode", which had been highly praised by users, had to be updated and further refined. Although the Auto Idle Stop (AIS), the first in the industry, functions to automatically stop the engine when the machine is not operating, a new function was added to allow the operator to manually stop the engine when stopping the machine. Mr. Yamada explained the safety functions as, "Even manual stop does not mean that the engine can just be turned off any time, as there are nine conditions that must be satisfied in order to stop operation in order to ensure safety." There are 14 conditions when using AIS. "G-Mode" also improves performance by allowing the winch to hoist at high speed without unnecessarily operating the engine at high speed. This allows the machine to swing and raise/lower the boom at the same time. "Equipping with numerous features while also maintaining safety was much more difficult than I thought. System development, originally scheduled for one year, took us one and a half years due to having to repeat verification testing many times," commented Mr. Yamada with a wry grin. In addition to these environmental and safety performance features, transportability was improved, making the easy-to-use G-2 Series a new standard for crawler cranes and enabling it to become an industry leader.